1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnostic processing system for an automatic transmission in an automobile.
The diagnostic processing system of the present invention cooperates with the automatic transmission of an automobile through the innovation of a gear position sensor. In particular, the gear position sensor is useful for an electronic controlled automatic transmission, in that the sensor is used for detecting, among a plurality of possible gear positions, what the gear position is at any given moment. The present invention specifically refers to various factors to be checked through a diagnostic process, such as completion of a gear-out operation, completion of a gear-in operation, and completion of a gear change, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, in an automobile equipped with an automatic transmission, awkward clutch operation is eliminated by automatically effecting so-called gear changes; enabling relatively trouble-free operation of the automobile by even an unskilled driver. Recently, the trend is toward the realization of a computer-assisted automatic transmission, namely an electronic controlled automatic transmission. Among the various types of electronic controlled automatic transmissions, the present invention refers to one in which the automatic transmission is basically composed of components identical to those incorporated in manually operated transmissions, i.e., clutch and slidable-mesh gear transmissions, but in which these components are controlled by a microprocessor in response to relevant data, such as an accelerator position signal, an automobile speed signal, etc.
Automobile transmissions should operate with a high degree of reliability, and various systems have been proposed to attain this high reliability. However, none of these systems have yet attained the required reliability with respect to the aforementioned type of automatic transmission.